What are some typical issues addressed in family counselling?

• Parent-child conflict
• Disagreements about parenting
• Relationships and boundaries with adult children who are living at home
• Effective communication
• Handling conflict
• Anger management
• Chronic medical illness
• Infidelity
• Separation/divorce
• Communicating and co-parenting effectively with an ex-spouse and children
• Single-parenting
• Financial problems
• Mental health issues with a family member
• Blended families
• Aging parents
• Relationship difficulties with family or friends
• Job stress
• Bereavement
• Intergenerational conflicts, including those related to family-owned businesses

Mental Health/Addiction Issues

Sometimes, a family may pursue family counselling while, alongside, an individual family member may receive other types of mental health treatment. This is often the case if a family member has a mental health issue or addiction that requires individual therapy or rehabilitation treatment. For example

• Family counselling can help family members learn coping techniques if a family member has a mental health issue. But, the person with the mental health issue should continue with his/her individualized treatment plan (which may include medication, individual counselling, etc).
• Family counselling can provide support to family members in dealing with an addicted family member. The family member with the addiction may or may not also seek out his or her own treatment for the addiction.

Family counselling can help you:

• Examine your family’s communication skills and ability to solve problems
• Explore the issues in your family which contribute to conflict and teach you ways to work through these issues effectively
• Identify your family’s strengths and weaknesses and improve upon them

Family counselling sessions are:

• Most effective when the entire family is involved
• Typically scheduled weekly or every 2 weeks
• Usually 75-minute sessions
• Sometimes supplemented with individual sessions for family members
• Solution-focused and short-term